Happy New Year

The beginning of 2007 brought a couple of changes to our world, both these events became life changing events for our family. The first was the passing of our dear friend Resi (Theresa) after a long hard battle with cancer. She was a wonderful person and we are all the better for knowing and loving her. We miss her very much. The second event was that Samantha had her tonsils removed and took months recovering, but is now almost completely recovered.

As a result of the events at the beginning of the year this made us take stock of what we wanted out of life, so Stephen and I decided to shake things up. I guess it is known as a mid-life crisis. Fortunately for us both Steve and I entered this event at the same time, and we’re in a situation to do something about it. One change was to home school the children for the 2007-2008 academic year and travel when the opportunity presented itself.

About us:

Steve is still working at Westjet and loving it. With the new routes Westjet is flying Steve’s work life is anything but dull.

I am still working at Bow Valley College building online courses, but now I am only working 10 day/month from home. Working from home, for me, is a wonderful blend between work, family and home life.

The girls are wonderful. Samantha is 11 and now in grade 6, Amanda and Nicole 9 and grade 4.
Sam is busy working on defining her own personal style and developing her own sense of self. Nicole is happiest while creating. It doesn’t matter what she is working on as long as she can create something every day, this is her most comfortable form of expression. Amanda is happiest when she is active mentally or physically.

What we have done:

In April we sold our house and purchased a new fixer-upper in the same neighbourhood.

At the end of June we started our travel adventure to Newfoundland (far east coast of Canada). We had a wonderful time visiting our friend Daph who generously gave us a private tour around St. Johns. St. Johns is rich in Canadian history and we discovered that all three girls love history as well as the spectacular natural beauty that defines “The Rock”.

July was a full month: Sam started off camping with her friend Nicole’s family, immediately upon her return she headed out to her summer camp with many of her school friends. They enjoyed horse-back riding, climbing, swimming and hiking. Nicole and Amanda enjoyed Art camp daily for a week learning new skills.

On July 19th we moved into our new house. Our final adventure for July, we borrowed a tent trailer two days after our move, leaving a mountain of boxes behind we set out to Mount Kidd (Mountains near Banff). We had a wonderful time hanging out with our friends who have two children. The 5 five kids had a wonderful time hiking, riding their bikes and getting into all sorts of fun.

August was the drama queen month. All three girls went to drama camp for two weeks. At this camp the campers write their own script, organize the set and act out a play. We are amazed and proud how well all our girls performed. While the girls were at their camp, Steve and I painted the exterior of our house.

At the end of August we headed west. The journey was a great deal of fun in itself. We flew to Vancouver, took a ferry to the Sunshine coast, drove up the coast and caught a water taxi to Nelson Island( we were taking advantage of an offer to stay at Steve’s Mom’s cousins cottage). Once on the island we loaded all our gear into a beat- up truck, which then transported the gear from the ocean up to the fresh water lake. Where we again transferred the gear into two small boats for the final leg to the cottage which sits on an island in the lake. Once on the Island we played for 5 days with great company, good food and the only schedules being dictated by naps and our stomachs. We felt like we had found a little piece of heaven on earth.

Once we returned from our west coast travel September and October where rather quiet , which allowed us to complete a great deal of book learning and a few more exterior house renovations.

The end of October brought more travel with a journey to California to go play in the sun. We arrived at the tail end of the devastating Southern Cal. Fires, and witnessed first hand the destruction.

Finally this brings us to December. The first 10 days of December we spent in Arizona playing with our friends/family from Saskatoon, Lynn and Clay (Nana and Papa) at their new winter playground in Arizona. Prior to visiting Lynn and Clay we visited one of the Seven Wonders of the World ... the Grand Canyon. It was a fantastic trip with so much to do and see.
Well life has been very full. We started the year feeling very challenged but feel we are ending the year on a positive note.

Enjoy 2008!

P.S. It was my turn (Steve) to write the Christmas letter ( I’ll take the heat for being tardy, I’m trying to cover two years in one, how’s that for an excuse: efficiency). It didn’t work with Beth either.